Man can name what God has done, but man cannot get God to name what man has done, or is trying to do, in his own name. Legislatures or courts can decree that men can now start marrying men, and those institutions can also, while they are at it, decree that water will start to flow up hill.
(D. Wilson, For a Glory and a Covering, p.32)
Thanks to Dan Smith for pointing me here, where Matt Chandler’s The Explicit Gospel, is available for free this month as an audio book. I’ve not read (or listened to) it myself, but judging from the video clip below it would be well worth downloading and digesting.
There is water in the world that once flew out of the mouths of guards and flecked the face of the Word Himself. There is iron that once tore at His back and iron that once coursed in His blood before it fell to the stones, left for the small animals to feed on in the night. Animals were born and spent a lifetime before being slaughtered, having their hides tanned and cut into strips, interwoven with stone and glass and lashing the skin off the One Poet’s back, baring ribs full of calcium. There are proteins still, somewhere in this world, that were used in His beard before soldiers clutched, not knowing how close their fingers came to the Infinite, and tore hard.
But there is nothing now made from His flesh decomposed. That seed sprouted long ago, the firstborn, sprung from the womb of death on the first real day of Spring.
(N. D. Wilson, Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl, p. 111)
The Good Book Company have issued a new series of books covering ‘Questions Christians Ask.’ This morning I noticed a blog post listing an extract from one of the books in the series, which deals with the issue of whether Christians can be possessed by the devil.
The book looks as though it would be worth getting hold of, but I was struck by the extract mainly due to recognising the experience of the author, Mike McKinley, in being surprised at how often Christian brothers and sisters are concerned that they might be possessed by demonic forces. Below is the extract from the book posted on the GBC blog this morning, which can also be found here.
Can a Christian be possessed by a demon?
I have been surprised at how often I hear this question as a pastor, but frankly the answer is not a simple one. If by “demon possession” we mean that someone is so controlled by a demon that they are unable to worship God, obey his commands, and control their behaviour, then the answer is clearly “no”. Scripture says plainly that the entrance of God’s salvation into a believer’s life will prevent that kind of satanic control.
So we must reject the idea that a Christian can be possessed, controlled, or dominated by a demon. Jesus has bound Satan and set God’s people free from his dominion (Matthew 12 v 29). There is no way for Satan to exercise that kind of authority and power over someone who has been bought by Jesus’ blood.
But, if we leave aside the word “possession” and think instead in terms of demonic “influence” or “attack”, then we have a clearer sense of how demons relate to God’s people. This is what is reflected in the experience of King David, which we read about in the book of 1 Chronicles: Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel. 1 Chronicles 21 v 1 We are not told how exactly Satan “incited” David, but it was part of a larger satanic programme of opposing God’s people. Unlike Job, who withstood Satan’s assaults faithfully, it seems that David succumbed to the temptation due to his pride and military ambition. But at no point do we have any reason to think that David (or anyone else in Israel) was unwittingly under the control of Satan or his demons.
In the New Testament, we read that Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, and that a messenger from Satan harassed the apostle Paul (2 Corinthian 12 v 7) and frustrated his plans (1 Thessalonians 2 v 18). We are also told that the evil one looks to devour believers like a ravenous lion (1 Peter 5 v 8). He schemes against God’s people, engages them in spiritual combat and attacks with fiery darts (Ephesians 6 v 11-16). Demons can tempt, influence, and attack God’s people, but to say that they can “possess” a Christian doesn’t make sense of the biblical evidence.
With strong calls by Christians to uphold traditional “family values” Peter Leithart encourages us to examine which family values we are seeking to uphold here.
If I set the sun beside the moon,
And if I set the land beside the sea,
And if I set the town beside the country,
And if I set the man bedside the woman,
I suppose some fool would talk about one being better.
G.K. Chesterton
(Wilson, Future Men, 18)
WHATEVER IS COMMENDABLE 